While this image has been incorrectly attributed (in an exhibition catalogue in 2001) to Cornelia G. Goodrich, who was Cornelia P.'s daughter, that clearly could not be the case since the daughter was only about 13 years old at the time, and it appears that attribution was simply a misreading of a "G" for a "P". However, there is no current evidence that Cornelia P. Goodrich took this photograph either. She was, however, the step sister of Morse, and her name on the back may have been only to identify her one-time ownership. A larger 1857 salt print of Morse by Mathew B. Brady from the Miller-Plummer collection sold at Christie's in 2009. It has a similar background and look, although that photograph shows Morse in a heavy winter coat posed with his telegraph recorder invention. Its tone is lighter than this image and sold for $37,500 at Christie's. This image here is also likely to be by the Brady studio, possibly taken at the same time as this other image. Neither were signed by Brady. Brady actually learned photography from Morse and maintained a close connection with Morse.

Cornelia P. Griswold married William McLean Goodrich on Christmas day, December 25, 1835.
She was Samuel Morse's step sister and a relation of Morse's second wife (Sarah Elizabeth Griswold), who was Morse's distant cousin. Morse even gave Cornelia P. Goodrich (nee Griswold) an early stereo daguerreotype of his second wife and his daughter Susan playing chess on the lawn at his country estate (Locust Grove) in Poughkeepsie, NY. That same Locust Grove was owned by both Goodrich's and Morse's great grandfather, Henry Livingston. There is some evidence that Livingston may have written the poem, "A Visit from St. Nicholas", and Cornelia's daughter and namesake, Cornelia Griswold Goodrich was the first family member to attempt to research this. This same Cornelia Griswold Goodrich, later donated the stereo to the New York Historical Society. The daughter Cornelia was born in 1842 and was only 30 years old when Morse died. However, her mother, Cornelia P. Goodrich, was born considerably earlier and died in 1902.

Samuel Finley Breese Morse (1791-1872) is justly famous for the invention of the telegraph and the code system that bears his name, one of the most important milestones in human history. On January 6, 1838, Morse made the first public demonstration of the new machine that would revolutionize the way the world communicated.

Morse was educated at Yale College, where he graduated in 1810. In addition to his inventive genius, Morse was an outstanding artist, serving for 20 years as the founder and first president of the National Academy of Design. In 1831 he was appointed Professor of Sculpture and Painting at New York University, the first chair of fine arts in America.

In Paris in 1839, Morse met Louis Daguerre, the creator of the daguerreotype, and published the first American description of this process of photography. Morse wrote a famous letter to the New York Observer describing the invention, which was published widely in the American press and provided a broad awareness of the new process. See: The Photograph and the American Dream: 1840-1940, p.62.

Returning from Paris, Morse, working along with John William Draper, then became one of the first Americans to build a camera and make daguerreotypes in the United States, and to take one of the very first camera portraits in the world, if not the first. Morse then opened a daguerreotype portrait studio in New York in 1840 with John William Draper. Morse taught the process to several others, including Mathew Brady, the future Civil War photographer (hence his close connection to the Brady studio). He also got his U.S. patent for the invention of the telegraph in the same year.

Markings:

With Morse's name (trimmed), written on a label, in the negative, and Cornelia P. Goodrich's name with Pókeepsie [sic], in ink, on mount verso; accompanied by a paper remnant with Morse's signature in ink.